TAMPA – According to Joe Girardi, Alex Rodriguez is excited to resume playing baseball.
Yet, Rodriguez has as much chance of being asked about the game tomorrow when he checks in at George M. Steinbrenner Field as he does landing on the front page of The Post again with stripper Jocelyn Morse in Toronto.
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The Yankees are bracing for Rodriguez’s re-entry into their bizarre universe. They have a press conference scheduled at the same venue where Andy Pettitte apologized last year for using human growth hormone. Team captain Derek Jeter said last week he will address the issue after Rodriguez speaks. Teammates and Girardi plan on attending the event to show support for their embattled teammate.
“He is excited. He said he can’t wait to start playing baseball,” said Girardi, who last contacted his third baseman Saturday and plans to do the same today. “I think he wants to get this behind him.”
Good luck.
Rodriguez, who is always favored to say the wrong thing, can expect a much more hostile audience today than he had a week ago in front of the ESPN camera. If he is smart – and that’s not the way to bet – Rodriguez will answer questions in detail, be honest, apologize 100 times and sound sincere.
While that won’t kill the issue, it certainly can help Rodriguez.
When Rodriguez marches into the pavilion that is used for Florida State League sponsors parties during the summer, he will find Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Pettitte, Girardi and Jeter.
“I will be there; I support him,” Girardi said. “You understand he is going through a difficult time. I supported Andy last year and I will support Alex. It’s part of my job.”
Girardi harbors the same hopes that are lingering inside Rodriguez’s confused mind: Getting back to baseball.
“I want to see him get through this and all of us get through this and get to what we love to do and that is play,” Girardi said.
Players often talk that the diamond is their solace in tough times. No writers. No cameras. No microphones. Just the ball, bat, glove, dirt and grass. Yet, pushing this out of Rodriguez’s head won’t be as easy as the other controversies he has been involved in.
Wherever he goes for as long as he lives, Rodriguez, perhaps the greatest player of all time, will be looked at by some as a cheater. To someone with Rodriguez’s outsized ego, that will be difficult to shake.
Yankees players have said all the right things about supporting Rodriguez because he is a teammate and they are family. However, players don’t enjoy answering touchy questions about each other. The longer that goes on, the testier they are going to get. Tomorrow’s support is a nice photo opportunity, but don’t expect the players to defend Rodriguez from now until October.
“I think it shows the unity of the club and I think that’s real important,” Girardi said of the players attending the packed press conference. “I think it’s important that teammates back teammates.”
Often, Rodriguez looks like the most relaxed man in the world at the plate and in the field. Other times – October in particular when the Yankees used to reach the postseason – Rodriguez looked like a size 16 neck stuffed into a 14 collar.
Tomorrow won’t be any easier.
“I think it would be uncomfortable for anybody,” Girardi said. “I know I would feel pretty uncomfortable and I think Andy felt uncomfortable, although you would have to ask him. I don’t understand how it wouldn’t be.”